Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-01-26

being occupied with fossil, drew from my
pocket that little paper of "Beauty Rules, OF
which told you some time ago. saying that
Ishould like her to explain these axioms to
me- She was sitting in low chair, and had
work basket beside her, with which she
kept up kind Of telegraphic connection in
the shape of thread which Travelled slowly
from the basket to herself, as her fingers
worked out some mystery in wool.
isHand me the paper" she said, laying her
needles and work down. u will read them to
you, and explain"
HBut here Sophia was seized with fit of
laughing, greatly tickled, it seemed, to find
herself lecturing on beauty to me.
never showed thes, to any one except
yourself" she remarked, when her mirth was
ended. "And never meant to show them to
anY one at ALL I daresay you will think
them great rubbish"
And so she began with a comic preface,
which was not on the paper at all:
Beauty Rules by Sophia Brent, an
elderly lady, who ought to be thinking OF
other things"
SaRule O1e.-A womans power in the
world is measured by her power to please.
'5SlFNateverss rsshe may wish to accomplish she,
win best manage it by pleasing. A wo-
mans grand social aim should be to please.
aAnd let me tell you how that is to be
done," Sophia said, putting her paper down
for moment IA woman can please the eye
by herappearance, her dress, her face and
her figure. She can please the ear by study
ing the art Of graceful elocution, not hard to
,anv Of us, for by nature we speak with finer
articulation than you. She can please the
mind by cultivating her own-so far, at
least as to make her good listener; and as
much further as she will she can please the
fancy by ladies' wit, of which all of us have
share. She can please the heart by ami
ability. See here" she continued, growing
graver, "you have the key Of my system.
Beauty of person is only one feature Of true
beauty Run over these qualities. See how
small part personal beauty or the freshness
of youth plays here. I want you to observe
this: for my art would consist not in making
women attractive who are openly pretty and
young, but in showing them that youth and
prettiness, though articles of beauty, are
neither the only nor the indispensable arti-
cles."
an that case,s I remarked, "you will
hardly illustrate your system in pc rson."
To this she vouchsafed smile and mock
courtesy, and read:
aRule T,co-Modesty is the ground on
which all woman's charms appear to the
best advantage In manners, dress, conver-
sation. remember always that modesty must
never be forgotten.
urJ,~j1,, 11,o1,, In I,o ,,,,,r,,,,rad UIc it7n
understand me- }" answered Sophia briskly,
~ mean modesty in a very extended sense
There is nowadays a tendency in women to
rebel against old-fashionetl modesty. The
doctrine of liberty is spreading among us, for
which thank God," Sophia said (she was the
oldest little mixture of Tory and Wing and
R'dical ever compounded on this eccentric
EARTH. "But the first effects Of that doctrine
on our minds are little confusing We are
growing more independent and mo, individ-
ual Some Of us fancy that to be modest is to
be old-fashioned, and, of course we want the
newest fashions in all things. maintain"
Sophia said, growing little warm, as if she
fancied might argue back-"I maintain that
amodest woman is the reply of my sex to
brave man-you can no more have true
woman without modesty than true man
without courage But remember, | use the
word modesty in a high sense"
Just what was going to ask" said.
"Not prudery," she added. "Prudery is
to modesty what brag is to bravery. Pru-
dery is on the surface modesty is in the
soul. Rosalind in her boys suit is delight
fully modest, but not" Sophia said with a
twinkle of her eye-"not very prudish, is
she9"
I assented, and thus made way for
"R,tle Three.-So the woman's aim is to
please, and modesty is the first principle in
the art Of pleasing.
"Have you anything to say to that9" she
demanded.
mot a syllable" replied. II play dis
ciple this morning"
Every well," she rejoined. eve come,
then, to-
"Rule Fo1r-Always dress up to your
age or little beyond it. Let your person
be the youngest thing about you, not the
oldest.
"a very important lesson for women Of
forty" Sophia remarked, speaking with q
seriousness which amused me. "The at
tempt to dress for young almost invariably
leads to a reaction in the spectators mind,
and the traces of years become more pal
pable and more significant. But slight and
graceful assumption of years in ones dress
has an effect directly opposite. May this
rule paSS!"
bowed, and she went on:
"Rule FIue Remember that what women
admire in themselves is seldom what men ad-
mire in them.
"Ir nine drawing rooms out of ten" Sophia
said, seeing me give look Of inquiry as she
read this article, miranda or Cordelia, as
novel heroines would be voted bores. Women
would say: We utterly decline to accept
these watery girls as typical Of us; we want
smartness and life' don't really care much
for Miranda or Cordelia myself. Now, this
seems to me to caution us against trusting
too implicitly or too fur Cur own notions
about ourselves Another source of misun-
derstanding comes from the novel writers.
We are the novel readers, and the novelist is
forced to write heroines to suit our taste. He
does not want to offend us. Thus it comes
about that even the male novelist is too often
And l believe scores of modern girls are
seriously misled for this very reason. They
believe they are finding out what men think
of them, when in truth they are reading
their own notions handed back to them under
a pretty disguise"
Like the cheap wine," ventured to OBJ
serve, "made in England exported to a
foreign country to he blessed, and then re-
turned rs fine old sherry-highly finished
wine"
Sophia laughed with me at this, and read
on:
"Rule Sin.-Nomen's beauties are seldom
mems beauties.
(which" she remarked, "is another form
of what said just now, only here I speak of
personal beauty. My observation is, that if
ten men and ten women were to 20 into the
same company and each sex choose the pref
tiest woman there, as they thought, you
would rarely find that they chose the same.
If this be so, we ought not to trust ourselves
even as to our faces without considering that
the sex we are to please must in the end set
tie the question, and will settle the question
In its own way:
HR,Ae Seren.-Gayety tempered by serious.
ness is the happiest manner in society
"By which mean," Sophia said, looking at
me with knitted brows, as If she were abous
to explain some matter not altogether clear
to herself. "that in all our gayety there ought
to be hint of self-rec objection. Do you un-
derstand me 2"
"Not quite" said.